Crafting is a fun and interactive activity for children of all ages. This is one activity that your kiddos can do to create just about anything. Whether they want to make craft instruments or use leftover egg cartons to create something unique, there is a never-ending variety of crafting options that all kids will love.
At Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center, we love crafts. We have numerous blogs that give you step-by-step directions for how to do some of our favorite crafts. These include everything from winter crafts and Valentine’s Day crafts to summer crafts and educational crafts. These crafts are fun, simple to do with your toddlers, and can provide your kiddo with a ton of different benefits.
In today’s blog, we are going to talk about the benefits of crafting. Since we have given you so many different crafts to try with your kiddos, we are going to spend some time talking about why they are beneficial and how they can help your little one develop. Read on to learn more and be sure to try out our crafts today!
Boost Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are one thing that they will leave and develop a lot throughout the first few years of life. Fine motor skills are the movement and coordination between small muscles, like in the fingers and hands. Some examples of actions that involve fine motor skills include using scissors, holding a pencil, and tying shoelaces or fastening buttons. Fine motor skills are an important thing for children to develop at a young age and can allow them to do a number of different tasks.
Crafts can help boost your child’s fine motor skills. They will use scissors to cut, hold pencils and markers, manipulate playdough, use buttons and beads, and perform a variety of other tasks that can help develop their fine motor skills. Even simply coloring or painting can help your child use their fine motor skills and improve their muscle strength and control over movements.
Improves Coordination
Crafting can also help your toddler develop better hand-eye coordination. Hand-eye coordination is something that your child will use throughout their entire life. This is the ability to do activities that require the use of your hands and eyes at the same time, which includes the majority of crafts.
As your kiddo works on their craft project, they will be improving their hand-eye coordination. Whether they are trying to cut in a straight line, coloring in the lines, and performing other crafting tasks can help your child develop these skills. As they continue to practice through craft activities, they will improve these skills, which will help them throughout their life, especially if they play sports!
Boost Creativity
Crafting activities can help boost your toddler’s creativity. While children are already very imaginative and creative, crafting can just make those characteristics stronger and can teach them how to use their creative side for something more productive. Creativity is very important for your child and can help them throughout different aspects of their life. From being a better problem solver in their career to being able to explore the world around them, being creative and imaginative will benefit them for years to come.
Crafts can help boost your child’s creativity. They will be able to create something new and exciting. They can use a variety of different shapes, material, colors, and objects to create something that they imagined. While we offer a ton of fun crafts that give you step-by-step directions, allowing your child to create on their own from time to time can allow them to use their creative side to create something special.
Allows For Self Expression
Crafts can also give your child a way to express themselves. At a young age, children can have trouble understanding how to express themselves verbally. But crafts can help them do so visually. Crafting gives them a safe environment to use different colors, materials, and craft items to express themselves.
If your child has a hard time verbally expressing their feelings, try crafting with them. You may be able to learn how they are feeling and get a better idea of what is on their mind by having them do crafting activities often. This is a great way to help your child deal with their own emotions as well. Sometimes, young children aren’t able to or don’t know how to properly handle their emotions, so giving them an outlet, like crafting, can help them do this in a constructive way.
Boost Self-Esteem
Everyone deals with low self-esteem from time to time throughout their lives, but you can help give your kiddo a great start in self-esteem with crafts! Crafting and completing a project can help your toddler feel a sense of accomplishment, which can lead to a boost in self-esteem.
Completing crafts and displaying their artwork can help your child feel great about themselves and their abilities. When they realize that they are able to create different things that they are in charge of, this helps them develop a sense of confidence. Help boost your child’s self-esteem early by allowing them to do crafts often. This can help them feel better about themselves in the future and continue to improve their self-esteem.
Boost Decision-Making Skills
Teaching your child how to make decisions at a young age can help them as they grow and help them feel confident in making decisions. As we all know, people have to make decisions on a daily basis, some of those decisions can be life-changing. Helping your child develop and improve their decision-making skills at an early age can help them learn how to best make decisions as an adult.
Crafting allows your child to make a variety of decisions, which can help enhance these skills. From what craft they want to make to what materials they want to use or what color they want, these are all decisions they will have to make while doing their crafts. As they get better at making decisions, they will have an easier time making decisions in other areas of their life.
Teaches Flexibility
When it comes to crafts, there is no right answer and there are many different ways to do a project. When your child realizes that there are many different ways to create something, it can teach them more about flexibility. Your child will quickly learn that there are many different ways to do something and that their way may not be better than their siblings and their sibling’s way isn’t better than theirs. They will both create a similar project using different methods.
Teaches Uniqueness and Imperfections
Many adults have trouble doing crafts because they expect their work to come out perfectly and have a hard time embracing their unique style. When your child does a crafting project, you can help them learn to embrace their uniqueness and add a different touch to their work, letting them know that this makes their work special. You can teach your child that they don’t have to be the same as other kids and that their project doesn’t have to be perfect.
Imperfections are something that many people have trouble accepting, but it is important to accept and embrace imperfections, whether they are personal imperfections or imperfections on our craft project. Teaching your child that their craft doesn’t have to be perfect can help them in this aspect.
There are so many benefits that crafting can provide your kiddo. Not only are they fun and help give your child something to do other than watch TV, but they can help with development, learning new skills, and learning about themselves. Be sure to check out our craft blogs for some fun ideas and step-by-step directions for different crafts. At Yellow Brick Road, we know that crafting can be very beneficial and we incorporate different projects into our child care programs. Contact us today to learn more!
